Even though Lando Norris admits that there are “more negatives, and then positives” at McLaren, he says the team understands the former “more than ever”.
McLaren went into the season opener of the Bahrain Grand Prix, followed by the braking problems that devastated their pre-season.
The team tested new brake channels in the Sakhir circuit, which seems like a step in the right direction.
But even with that issue seemingly resolved, McLaren could not find performance in MCL36.
Norris qualified for 13th place, while Daniel Ricciardo, who missed his second pre-season outing with Covid, was P18.
“I think everyone works hard, and we just had a long meeting through it all, so they work hard,” Norris told Motorsport.com.
“They’re been really good at getting good things done since last year.
“There are still a lot of the positives we got, just unfortunately, more negatives and then positives.
After a promising pre-season, it’s time to work on McLaren’s P13 and P18 grid tomorrow 😬#BahrainGP # F1 pic.twitter.com/uJpUWWb1ZU
– PlanetF1 (@ Planet_F1) March 19, 2022
“So it’s just time to work on them. And I think now we understand them more than ever. It’s just about putting them into action.
The Briton warned it was not something McLaren would sort out overnight.
“It’s not an overnight job,” he said, “it’s not something we’ll open up to on Sunday and be amazing, or come up to Saudi Arabia and be amazing.
“But it will take time, and they will work hard to try to make those improvements.”
Norris has revealed that one issue with McLaren is that even though it feels like the drivers put together the perfect lap, the Timesheets say it’s slower than it feels.
“It’s challenging to put a round together,” he said, “but then, at the same time, when you put it together, you feel like you should be much taller than you are, like the last round I did in Q2. it was a 1m32.0s or whatever it was.
“But it feels like I’m sixth, seventh, fifth, whatever that or pole should be! You performance, you feel like you’re extracting everything from it, but you’re just far away.
“So it’s a bit of both. It’s harder to get it together. But when you do, you’re just not where you want to be.”
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